Tabernacle Church Penarth

This series of studies called ‘No Perfect People Allowed’ is based around John Burke’s book of the same name. The sub-title to his book is called “Creating a come as you are culture in the church” and strives to ask what sort of church do we need to be if we are to be truly missionary and reach the vast majority of folk who do not come to church yet?  Whereas 25 years ago most of the people we were trying to reach at least had a notion of what Christianity entailed, now that knowledge is almost completely gone. We are in the exciting position of primary missionary and evangelism. No longer are we trying to convince nominal Christians that they need to make a personal commitment to Jesus. Now we are reaching completely unchurched people who have never heard the gospel. We are essentially in the same situation as the first century church and the opportunity is stunning!

This series of studies will run alongside the Sunday morning services and look at what it means to be a church that has a “come as you are culture”. Some of it will be challenging. Some of it will uncomfortable. I have deliberately been provocative with some of the phrasing of the introductory comments and questions. One thing is certain; the church in the future cannot and will not look like the church of the past or even the church of the present. What is it that God is doing in our day? At Tabs we have already begun this journey and have been on it together for many years. We are the incredibly privileged position of being able to discover and model what church will look like in the future. My prayer is that these studies will help us to reflect together and think about the kind of community we are going to be in the future.